DSA Players feature in first ever Para-Badminton Squad

BADMINTON England have today invited 12 Para-Badminton players to form the newly introduced Team England Para-Badminton squad for 2012.

6 stars, including some well known names on the global Para-Badminton circuit, have been pinpointed as ‘Podium Performance’ players whilst a further 6 players will form a ‘Podium Potential’ group.

PODIUM PERFORMANCE		PODIUM POTENTIAL
Gobi Ranganathan	WH2	Owen Kilburn	WH1
William Smith	SL3	Paula Robinson	WH2
Bobby Griffin	SL4	Martin Rooke	WH2
Rachel Choong	SS6	Bruno Forbes	SL4
Oliver Clarke	SS6	Antony Forster	SL4
Andrew Martin	SS6	Krysten Coombs	SS6

*RESERVE[S]*		*RESERVE[S]*
David Follett	WH1	Daniel Lee	SL4
Lee Hill	SS6

The squad, featuring representation across 6 classifications of disability, was selected by a panel made up of the Team England Para-Badminton head coach, Disability Manager and BADMINTON Council Member.

Out of the 12 players asked to be part of the team 4 are players from the DSAuk.

To draw up the squad list, the panel reviewed results from the 4Nations Para-Badminton series and other international competitions over the past 2 seasons – identifying consistent ability to reach Finals – as well as the longer term prospects of individual players’ ability to reach a world ‘top 3’ ranking based upon new BWF classification.

In addition, younger players who have demonstrated long term world class potential and commitment with the ability to perform under pressure have also been named within the squad.

The squad has 2 clear performance objectives laid out:
• Achieve English representation in a minimum of three finals at the European Para-Badminton Championships 2012.

• Achieve English representation in a minimum of 6 semi-finals at the European Para-Badminton Championships

In order to put unrivalled focus on these objectives, all players named in the Team England Para-Badminton squad will now benefit from a specific Team England training camp as well as invaluable support at the 2012 European Para-Badminton Championships, hosted by Germany in June.

In addition, players selected for the ‘Podium Performance’ group will receive additional support for entry into the French International Parabadminton Open in April 2012 and the European Parabadminton Championships.

Speaking on the unveiling of the Team England Parabadminton squad, BADMINTON England’s Disability Manger Tom Webster stated “BADMINTON England’s new Disability Strategy is in place to drive up playing standards and help the sport gain Paralympic recognition.

Our ultimate aim is to develop and maintain a minimum of 3 players ranked in the Top 3 of the BWF world rankings across all classifications and disciplines and this squad gives us maximum opportunity to achieve this”.